


Spot Conlon Who?

by Mgeeks



Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M, Spot Conlon is both soft (TM) and tough, Spot is just really tired okay, all the ships are really background, and Kath is having too much fun, i don't even know what this is, this is about Spot mostly, um
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 19:04:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15371277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mgeeks/pseuds/Mgeeks
Summary: The Duane St boys are terrified of Spot Conlon, even after the strike is settled. Katherine, seeing as she lives in Brooklyn and has her own fair share of experience with the King of Brooklyn, decides to set them straight. After all, what's there to be afraid of about Spot Conlon?





	Spot Conlon Who?

Spot sighed as he pushed open the door to the Duane St lodging house. He shouldn’t have been surprised Kelly made him walk all the way over here to deal with running the union. But still, if it was so important to Kelly, why couldn’t he come to Spot?

At least this way he might get a chance to see Race. Even if they couldn’t be alone, it would better than things had been lately. All the changes because of the union had kept most of the leading newsies busy, Spot and Race included.

The room went silent when he entered. Spot looked around, noticing a distinct lack of a certain newsie. “Where’s Kelly.”

A boy with glasses, Specs, Spot thought was his name, spoke up from the card table. “He and Racer are off dealin with a problem in the Bowery. Should be back tonight.”

Great. He’d come all the way to Manhattan and Kelly wasn’t even there. Spot looked around the room. All the boys looked tense. The silence persisted. Normally Spot would just wait inside for Kelly to get back, it was marginally cooler than out on the street, but it’d been a long few weeks. He wasn’t up to waiting around in a room full of people who were afraid of him today. For a long moment he thought about just turning around and going back to Brooklyn and his own lodging house with his own newsies. But, knowing Kelly, if Spot didn’t deal with whatever Kelly wanted to deal with today, he’d just be hauling his ass back to Manhattan tomorrow.

He nodded to Specs and headed back outside to wait in the shade of the building. Maybe he’d be able to catch a breeze, at least.

* * *

 

“Hey, boys--whoa, what’s going on in here?” Katherine asked as she stepped into the common floor of the Duane St lodging house to find the boys huddled around the windows, frantically whispering to each other. They were staring out at the street she’d just come in from, but they didn’t seem to have noticed her entrance. She pushed her way between Tommy Boy and Finch to reach the window. “What are you all staring at?”

She followed their collective gaze to see a familiar newsie leaning against the wall of the lodging house, looking out across the street. He was a Brooklyn newsie, she’d seen him around, but she couldn’t quite remember his name.

“Why don’t you just ask him if he’s going to come in?” She asked Finch, turning in time to see his eye widen.

“Ask him to come in? Are you crazy?” He replied, his voice jumping an octave.

“If you don’t want to know why he’s here, then why are you all crowding the windows, staring at the man?” She asked the room as a whole. For a minute none of the boys responded. Most wouldn’t meet her gaze.

Finally, Albert spoke up, “Plumber, that’s Spot Conlon. _The_ Spot Conlon.”

She tilted her head at the curious significance he gave the name, like she was supposed to know it. And then she realized, she _had_ seen that newsie before, recently, too. “ _Oh._ Okay, what about him?”

“Whaddaya mean what about him? That’s _Spot Conlon_. I heard he beat up some fellas on the Steeplechase at Coney. While it was moving!” said Buttons.

“And?” She asked, still not understanding what the big deal was. Hadn’t any of these boys ever seen him do literally anything? The longest she’d seen him act serious, and admittedly a bit intimidating, was the strike, and that was the longest she’d seen any of them do that kind of thing. “It’s not like he’s going to bite.”

“He might,” Finch muttered under his breath.

“Look,” Specs said, speaking over Finch and walking over to Katherine. “Spot Conlon is the King of Brooklyn. If he wants to come in, he’ll come in. If he wants to stay outside, well, I ain’t gonna question him.”

“Why not?” She asked, laughing at the ridiculousness of these boys. He was just another newsie.

“Have you _met_ him?” Romeo piped up from where he was still staring out the window.

“Of course I have,” she said, ignoring the shocked looks that got her. “Have any of _you_ actually met him?” He’d been at the strike, but maybe the boys had avoided him then like they seemed intent on doing now. It wouldn’t surprise her.

“Yes.” Buttons, Finch, and Henry said, all sounding very much like they regretted that fact.

“Wait, wait wait, how the hell do _you_ know him?” Albert asked.

“I was covering the strike. I met the leaders of all the newsies.” She shrugged. “Also, I see him all the time selling in Brooklyn.”

Now _that_ got their attention. No one was staring out the windows anymore as Katherine walked over to the abandoned card table and pulled out a chair. The boys followed her, arguing amongst themselves, everyone talking over each other.

“What were you doin in Brooklyn?” Specs asked, voice carrying over the rest of the boys.

Katherine shrugged again, starting to enjoy this. “I live there.”

“ _What?!_ ”

“No, no way. It’s gotta be a gag.” Romeo insisted, then turned to Katherine, “Great joke, Plumber, but there ain’t no way you live in Brooklyn and aren’t scared of Spot Conlon.”

She laughed and waved her hand. “Oh please, I once saw that man fall into a storm drain on purpose to make a kid laugh. It was the funniest thing I’d seen all day.”

Every boy in the room stared at her with wide eyes.

“What?” She asked the group as a whole. “What’d I say?” She asked Specs, who was closest to her. He shook his head wordlessly.

“He didn’t soak you?” Romeo asked, sounding awed.

“What? No. He does that kind of thing all the time, trying to get the younger newsies to smile.”

“What younger newsies?” Henry asked.

“Well I never see him _alone_. He’s usually walking around with a few bags of papers and at least two, usually more like four, kids trailing behind him. It’s actually kind of cute.” She grinned internally at the way they all crowded closer, demanding to know more about the Spot Conlon she saw in Brooklyn. This was going to be fun.

* * *

 

This was shaping up to be one of the best days of Albert’s life. Katherine knew _the_ Spot Conlon. And she sure knew a hell of a lot more than they did. Better stories, too, true or not.

Albert didn’t think he’d ever be able look at Conlon the same way again. Not that he often had the chance, but still. He didn’t know how he could take a threat from him seriously after hearing what Katherine was telling them. Sure, Albert messed around with the younger newsies in Duane St plenty, and he liked them well enough, too. But there was messing around and there was what the untouchable King of Brooklyn apparently spent his days doing.

He turned his attention back to the conversation in time to hear Katherine start talking about how the kids would all walk in a line and how the front kid always grabbed onto Conlon. He nudged Romeo, laughing under his breath at the picture of some little newsie grabbing onto the back of _Spot Conlon’s_ suspenders.

“Racer’s gonna love this,” he said to Romeo through his laughter. It was too bad Jack had dragged Race with him to the Bowery. The was just the kind of thing Race could use if he ever ran into trouble for selling at Sheepshead.

“There _was_ this one time I saw a really little kid try to hold his hand, and you should have seen the way he pouted when Spot said no.” She cut herself off with a laugh, shaking her head at the memory. “But when I saw them later, the kid was pulling Spot along, going on and on about anything and everything under the sun. I’d say he made that kid’s day.”

Romeo sniggered, then waved away Albert’s questioning look, responding to his earlier statement instead, “yeah, I’ll _bet_ he will.”

Albert shook his head. Half the time he did _not_ get what Romeo was trying to imply.

* * *

 

“What I don’t get,” Tommy Boy said, interrupting the scattered laughter that greets the end of Katherine’s latest story, “is what Spot Conlon’s doin spending his days with the little ones. Don’t he have more important things to do?”

Finch looked expectantly at Katherine, absentmindedly shuffling the abandoned deck of cards. “Yeah. He can’t do this every day.” He paused. “Can he?”

Katherine shrugged. “I don’t know about _every day_. I don’t stalk the man. But he does seem to really like selling with the little ones. They always seem to make him happy when they’re happy.”

Tommy Boy shook his head and leaned back in his seat. “No. I can’t see Spot Conlon coddling some kid.”

“Why not?” Katherine challenged. “He seems pretty great at it.” When Tommy Boy’s skepticism didn’t fade, she continued, “I don’t know how many kids I’ve seen him carry on his back at the end of the day, but I do know most of them are pretending to be too tired to walk. I’d bet he does, too, considering they’re giggling their heads off.” She raised an eyebrow at Tommy Boy.

Tommy Boy laughed. “Alright, you’ve got my attention. What else ya got?”

Finch shook his head as Katherine launched head-first into a story of Spot teaching the Brooklyn little ones to throw a punch. He glanced at Specs, who was watching the rest of the boys with amusement. Finch looked at the rest of them, seeing surprise on most of their faces, nothing like Specs’ calm amusement, though that wasn’t exactly new. Specs always responded to change better than most of the boys. Albert and Romeo, on the other hand, looked positively gleeful with each word coming out of Katherine’s mouth. Practically overjoyed.

Finch didn’t understand that. If Katherine had been telling them about pretty much any other newsie, except maybe Bird up in Midtown, he’d be laughing along with the others. But this was _Spot Conlon_. Finch still had vivid memories of Spot and his newsies booting him out of Brooklyn. Violently. He didn’t know how to reconcile that newsie with the one Katherine was talking about like an old friend, it didn’t matter how many times she’d seen him play up a fake injury from one of his boys’ slingshots.

Spot may be that way around his newsies, but Finch was painfully aware that he was _not_ one of his newsies. Though he supposed knowing that Spot Conlon wasn’t some ineffable, untouchable bogeyman in Brooklyn did put him somewhat at ease.

He was sure about one thing though, Katherine was something else.

* * *

 

“But he’s Spot Conlon. He’ll soak you if you piss im off, I’s seen it.” Buttons insisted.

“Well yeah, but he won’t do it at the drop of a hat. I’m pretty sure as long as you don’t threaten his boys, you can ask him to come in.” She said, rolling her eyes that they still didn’t get it. Granted, she _had_ seen him successfully knock out a man twice his size for doing just that to one of his newsies, but she thought she’d keep that story to herself.

Thankfully, Katherine was saved from doing any further convincing when the door opened behind the boys, who all tensed up. Katherine smiled and waved at her boyfriend as he walked into the lodging house, Racetrack and Spot not far behind. The boys relaxed when they noticed Jack, they didn’t seem to have noticed Spot yet.

Race and Spot stopped at the edge of the group while Jack leaned down to drop a kiss on her cheek. At least Race didn’t seem to have the same fear of Spot Conlon the rest of the boys were so attached to, judging by how close the two were standing. She scooted her chair over to make room for Jack to place one next to her, tossing an arm over the backs of their chairs as he sat down. She dragged her attention away from her boyfriend when the boys around them broke into laughter. She turned to see Spot glaring as the boys quieted down, some.

Oh, this would be good.

* * *

 

Spot saw Race walking up to the lodging house before he saw Kelly.

When he saw the taller newsie round the corner at the end of the block, Spot couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. He had missed the other boy, and maybe now they’d get to have a few minutes just to themselves before he had to deal with whatever emergency Kelly had cooked up in his mind.

That hope was crushed when Spot saw the second figure just a few steps behind Race. Kelly. Spot’s smile dropped, but he couldn’t quite force himself to scowl, not even at Kelly.

Spot shook himself and forced himself to look at least sort of annoyed. “Where you been, Kelly? I got things ta do, can’t go wasting my day waiting around on your sorry ass,” Spot called as the pair approached.

Kelly wasn’t fazed by Spot’s frustration. “Got caught up. Glad ya could come up. We can talk inside, it’s miserable out here.” Kelly clapped Spot on the shoulder as he passed, stepping up into the lodging house. Race gestured for Spot to go ahead of him, shooting the other newsie a quick grin, which Spot couldn’t help but return, even for just a moment.

He didn’t pay much attention to whatever Kelly and his girlfriend were doing as he entered the Duane St lodging house for the second time that day, too distracted by Race, who was standing. Right. Behind him. Now Spot knew why he’d let him go first, the cheeky little shit. Spot forced himself to look at the rest of the boys instead of reacting to Race, though he couldn’t quite stop himself from leaning back, just enough to acknowledge Race’s presence. That would have to do for now. He just had to make sure none of the other boys took notice.

“What are you staring at?” He asked Albert, who was staring at him with a smirk on his face. He wasn’t the only one, either.

Albert’s smirk widened into a full-on grin. “Oh, nothing, Conlon. Just wonderin if you’d be willing to entertain our boys with a game of cowboys n Indians, later. I hear you’re pretty good at lettin em win.” The room erupted in laughter.

Spot eyes narrowed into a glare. Oh, she didn’t. The boys shut up when they saw his glare, but the silence came slower and was less total than he’d prefer. Even Finch, whose hands he could see shaking when he turned his glare on him, kept pace shuffling his cards.

He turned to Kelly and Katherine, the former not looking too surprised by Albert’s joke, and the latter not looking at all abashed at her role in it. “What kind of tales you been spreading, princess?”

The room went silent. Proper silent this time. Finch had even stopped shuffling that damned deck.

Spot looked around to see the other boys looking at him like he’d lost his mind. “What? I ain’t wrong. You _seen_ her house? Looks like it could hold all the newsies in Brooklyn.”

Katherine waved off Kelly’s concerned look, unbothered by the nickname. Good, it’s not like it was the first time he’d used it. If she’d had a problem, she’d had plenty of time to say.

Kelly, seeing he didn’t need to defend Katherine’s honor, focused back on the question at hand. “Yeah, what _have_ you been telling them about Spot, Katherine?”

Spot scowled, but it did nothing to stop her from answering.

“These boys seemed to have some...misconceptions about our dear Spot Conlon here. I was just correcting them.”

“Oh, really?” Kelly drawled, a smirk growing on his face as he turned back to Spot. “And just what was they confused about?”

“Not too much, really, they just didn’t realize Spot was such a softie when it comes to his boys.” Behind Spot, Race snorted. Spot elbowed him under the ribs. Katherine smirked, looking too perceptive for Spot’s comfort. “Don’t worry, I fixed that real quick.”

“Yeah, who’d’ve guessed, Spot Conlon, King of Brooklyn, expert nanny,” Albert joked, elbowing the newsie next to him as the rest of the boys burst into laughter again.

Spot sighed in relief even as Jack joined in on the fun, adding his own, up til now untold, stories to the mix. At least she hadn’t told them about the time a dog chased him up a tree.

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr at newsiesquare.tumblr.com.


End file.
